Archive for the ‘Harley-Davidson Servicar’ tag

Harley-Davidson Servicar with a hobby horse on the back for a 1950s American Legion parade. Photos courtesy Harley-Davidson Media

A new collection of rare and one-of-a-kind Harley creations from the 108 years of the company’s existence opened on June 11 at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. Called “Collection X: Weird, Wild Wonders of the Harley-Davidson Museum,” the exhibit will feature odd prototypes that were created as concepts but never manufactured or sold, along with other WTFery from the H-D archives. Most of the concepts featured early 20th century motors made by Harley-Davidson for everything from generators and lawn mowers to snowmobiles, air boats and airplane engines. Thousands of old photographs, riding apparel, goggles, belts, and other accessories are also on display. Some of the rare one-offs include:

The Cyclone Motor-Sled, “Pop’s Trolley.” This 10-foot-long canvas-covered spruce sled is one example of the many uses found for Harley-Davidson motors over the years. The motor-sled was sold as a kit by the Mead Ice Yacht Co. of Chicago in the Thirties, and this prototype was powered by a 1925 H-D JDCB 74-cubic-inch V-Twin. $38.50 bought the entire sled, except for the countershaft, propeller and engine. Some sleds were powered by Harley-Davidson motorcycle engines from the owners’ motorcycles that weren’t being used in the winter.

1913 General Electric transformer from Milwaukee’s Juneau Avenue factory – This eight-foot-tall, 8,000-pound electrical transformer helped power the Harley-Davidson factory (now corporate headquarters) in Milwaukee from 1913 through the 1990s. Until this year, the transformer was still being used as backup power. Visitors to the exhibit will see the nearly century-old transformer next to a photo from the day it was delivered in 1913 to the factory from General Electric’s generator production facility in Schenectady, New York. For many years, Harley-Davidson was the largest individual user of electrical power in Milwaukee and the only company in the city to have an electrical furnace.

Harley-Davidson-produced LR-64 Rocket. Manufactured by H-D for the U.S. Navy at their York, Pennsylvania, assembly plant, the LR-64 was used to power drones during military training exercises. Harley produced more than 5,000 of these rockets between the mid-Sixties and the Nineties.